Dodgers offence punishes Blue Jays bull pen in World Series rematch

TORONTO-- 

Teoscar Hernandez, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani all hit home runs, Daniel Rushing hit two, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 14-2 in the first game of the World Series rematch at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on Monday night. 

The Blue Jays (4-6), starting pitcher Max Scherzer, left the game after the second inning, which forced the Jays to bring pitcher Josh Fleming into the game, who was with Toronto’s triple-A team, the Buffalo Bison, until this morning. The Dodgers (8-2) took full advantage of Fleming and the rest of the Jays' bullpen as they got 17 hits and five home runs in their 14-2 blowout. 

Rushing led the way for the Dodgers with four hits on top of his two home runs. Kyle Tucker had three runs, and Ohtani, Freeman, Hernandez, Max Muncy, Andy Pages, and Hyeseong Kim all had two hits for Los Angeles. 

Shohei Ohtani rounding the bases in Toronto as the Dodgers route the Blue Jays on Mon April, 6. (Photo credit: @Dodgers on X)

Ernie Clement hit an RBI single, George Springer scored, and Andres Giminez grounded out to advance Daulton Varsho home in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Jays' offence struggled in their fifth straight loss. 

Justin Wrobleski made his second appearance of the season, allowed one run and two hits, got two strikeouts, and walked four batters through five innings. Will Klein, Edgardo Henriquez, and Miguel Rojas came in relief for the Dodgers. 

Max Scherzer made his second start of the season for the Jays, but left after two innings, allowing two runs, two hits, striking out two batters, and walking one. After Scherzer, the Jays sent out five different relief pitchers. 

Josh Flemming pitched three innings, gave up four runs and six hits, and Tommy Nance pitched 1.1 innings and gave up four runs and six hits. 

Former Blue Jay Hernandez hit a two-run home run, and Kyle Tucker scored, for his second homer of the season, as the Dodgers took an early lead. 

Clement hit an RBI single in the bottom of the first, and Springer scored to bring the Jays within one. They got the bases loaded but left three runners stranded as Straw grounded out to second. But it was all Dodgers after that. 

In the third, with Scherzer out of the game, Freeman homered to deep right to bring home Ohtani. Muncy hit a two-out single, and Pages advanced to second base with an error from Okamoto, as Fleming's first inning with the Jays ended after surrendering four hits and two earned runs. 

Pitcher Joe Mantiply made his second appearance with the Jays after several years with Arizona in the sixth inning. 

The first batter he faced was Ohtani, who hit a home run to centre field for the Dodgers to extend their lead to 7-1.  

Daniel Rushing hit a home run on the first pitch of the seventh inning for his second of the game, and the Dodgers continued to punish the Jays' bullpen all night. 

The series continues on Tuesday night with Kevin Gausman taking the mound for Toronto against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.